Do Membership Rewards points expire? No. American Express Membership Rewards points have no expiration date as long as your account is open and in good standing.1American Express. Do Membership Rewards Points Expire? You can hold a balance for years without touching it. What you do need to watch is forfeiture: closing an account, missing a payment, or reversing the wrong purchase can wipe out points that would otherwise sit in your account indefinitely.
Closing an Account Is the Biggest Risk
If you cancel your Membership Rewards account and you do not have another eligible American Express card or checking account linked to the program, your unredeemed points are forfeited immediately.2American Express. What Happens to Amex Points When You Cancel This is how most people lose a balance. They close a card without realizing the points go with it.
New York cardmembers have a narrow safeguard. As of December 10, 2023, they may be able to redeem points for up to 90 days after receiving notice of account closure.2American Express. What Happens to Amex Points When You Cancel Outside New York, no such grace period is guaranteed. Redeem or transfer before you close.
How to Keep Your Points When You Cancel a Card
The simplest fix is keeping at least one other Membership Rewards-eligible card open. Your points stay pooled in the program and remain accessible through the card that survives. If the annual fee is the reason you want to cancel, ask about downgrading to a no-annual-fee card that still participates in Membership Rewards. Not every Amex card earns Membership Rewards, so confirm eligibility before you switch.
You can also transfer points to an airline or hotel partner before closing. Once transferred, those points follow the partner program’s rules, including any activity requirements or expiration policies that program enforces. Transfers are one-way. Points cannot be moved back into Membership Rewards.
Miss a Payment and You Lose That Cycle’s Points
If you miss a payment by its due date, you forfeit the points earned during that billing period. Your existing balance stays intact, but the points from the missed cycle are gone, and you cannot redeem accumulated points at all until you bring the account current.3American Express. Why Didn’t I Earn Membership Rewards Points and How Can I Reinstate Them?
Reinstatement is available for a fee. You can pay $35 per billing period, per card account, to recover the forfeited points. The deadline is 12 months from the statement closing date for the billing period you missed. Corporate cards get 6 months.3American Express. Why Didn’t I Earn Membership Rewards Points and How Can I Reinstate Them? After that, those points are permanently gone. And if the account is charged off or sent to collections, the full balance is typically canceled, not just the delinquent period’s points.
Returns and Bonus Clawbacks
Returning a purchase reverses the points you earned on it. That is normal for a straightforward return: the spending is undone, so the points come back out of your balance.
The bigger problem is welcome offers. If you earned a sign-up bonus by hitting a minimum spending threshold, then returned enough purchases to fall below it, American Express may reverse the entire bonus. If you had already transferred those bonus points to an airline or hotel partner, the reversal can drop your Membership Rewards balance into the negative. Future points you earn then go toward paying off that deficit before you can redeem anything.
If Amex Revokes Points for “Abuse” or “Gaming”
Issuers also monitor for patterns they label as gaming or abuse of a rewards program. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued guidance in 2024 warning that revoking rewards based on vague catch-all terms like “gaming” or “abuse,” especially when left to the issuer’s sole discretion, can be an unfair or deceptive practice. The CFPB also found that revoking previously earned rewards based on actions outside the consumer’s control, including an issuer’s own decision to close an account, is potentially unfair.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Consumer Financial Protection Circular 2024-07: Design, Marketing, and Administration of Credit Card Rewards Programs If your points were revoked under buried or vague conditions, you can file a complaint with the CFPB.
What Happens to Points When a Cardholder Dies
Points do not automatically transfer at death, and they can disappear if the account is closed before anyone acts. The estate or a family member needs to contact American Express, typically with a death certificate and legal documentation such as letters testamentary. Amex has a dedicated process for deceased cardmember accounts, and the available options — redemption, transfer, or a statement credit — depend on the account’s status.
Timing matters because the same closure rule applies: once the account is shut without another eligible card linked, the balance is forfeited. If the deceased had an authorized user who had been on the account for at least 90 days, transferring points to a loyalty partner through that access may be worth raising with American Express directly.
A Note on Taxes
Taxes are a separate question from expiration, but the two get confused. Points earned through ordinary card spending are generally treated by the IRS as purchase rebates, not taxable income, whether you earn them or redeem them. Rewards not tied to spending are different. A bonus for opening an account with no spending requirement, or a referral reward, may be taxable, and issuers may report values of $600 or more on a Form 1099.5Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC Most sign-up bonuses require spending, so they usually fall on the non-taxable side.